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Nerobro posted:I worked with one of the board members at IRM for a year. And I never got out to the museum. I suppose I should make time and get a close look at some stuff. I'm a regular volunteer at IRM (the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest museum of its kind in the Americas) and I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about. Was he big into diesels? to contribute, some awesome locomotives we have around the museum: Union Pacific 18, a gas-turbine-electric locomotive manufactured by General Electric in 1961. This was capable of producing 8,500 horsepower. Union Pacific rostered a fleet of turbine locomotives in the mid-20th century for hauling rear end throughout the American west, and were generally regarded as decent engines whose astronomical fuel consumption did them in by 1970. Our turbine is one of only two left, and is missing some internal parts but otherwise complete. It will probably never run again, not only because of the fuel costs involved, but also because the exhaust heat would destroy our overhead trolley wire. Chicago South Shore & South Bend 803, a gargantuan electric freight locomotive which spent the majority of its service life shuffling cars around in northwestern Indiana (some video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hd4qqWZM4s). This type of locomotive is typically known as a "Little Joe," after Joe Stalin Built following WWII for service on a Soviet railroad, they were never shipped when cold war tensions began to arise, and instead a few railroads in the US and Brazil bought them instead. #803 isn't quite operational right now (needs air compressor work), but has run at the museum in the past. Illinois Central 201 is the oldest steam locomotive in the museum collection. It was built in 1880 for hauling commuter trains on what's now known as the Metra Electric on the south side of Chicago. What is really special about this locomotive, though, is that it is the only locomotive left anywhere which was driven by the mythical Casey Jones. Jones was brought to Chicago (along with a lot of other engineers) to help handle the crowds during the 1893 World's Fair; he and this locomotive almost certainly crossed paths at some point. Chicago Burlington & Quincy 9911A is the sole survivor of the E5-type locomotive fleet once rostered by that railroad, usually used on their trademark "Zephyr" passenger trains, which ran until the late 1960s. Its stainless steel cladding makes it unmistakable, and it looks drat slick pulling the museum's Nebraska Zephyr trainset. Also, its dual EMD 567-12s make glorious music (in-cab video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3zhPkIHbqc). Bonus: Crappy camera phone picture from inside our GG1:
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# ? Mar 8, 2011 07:30 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:38 |
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I am out in Cheyenne, WY and we have a Union Pacific Big Boy out here in the park, as well as having the Union Pacific do a yearly run out here. Such an awesome steam engine! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Big_Boy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqdscqMR26E&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP1_4ymsIig&feature=relmfu Union Pacific # 3985 continues to run on occasion, but she has been converted to an oil burner in place of coal. Union Pacific # 844 runs as well on occasion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEhj9sXvP-8&feature=relmfu And if you can't recognize UP#844 then you had a crappy childhood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TLINNFIGQM&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IxMJ3lXrXU&NR=1
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# ? Mar 8, 2011 07:44 |
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Speleothing posted:I used to live across the street from the railroad tracks when I went to U of M, I loved the big freight trains that came by late at night, brakes screeching. Also train horns in the distance, a fond memory of childhood. This guy on youtube goes out of his way to record trains and even does compilations of just train horns. Kind of weird, I know, but put a video on before you go to bed and it's almost therapeutic. He also as a bunch of other train vids too. http://www.youtube.com/user/Cchrisbud813 *edit* I might not be normal. Mental Hospitality fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Mar 8, 2011 |
# ? Mar 8, 2011 13:07 |
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Bugdrvr posted:I love trains too! I grew up in the Northeast where you'll still find a lot of railroad history floating around. Near the "Steamtown Museum" in Scranton PA they had a Big Boy sitting for years. I drank many a 40 in the cab while playing with the knobs and levers when I was in high school. The museum itself wasn't bad either though not nearly as cool as the one in Baltimore. Heh, you're thinking of the old Steamtown. You should go check out the new version. Its loving awesome, and yeah the Big Boy is still there, static display, because even if somehow they did come up with the several million $ to restore it, they'd have to build an excursion specifically for it... I'm old enough to remember the old Steamtown too, and I can assure you the new one is just as good as the Baltimore museum, I've been to both. Hopefully this spring I'll actually visit the RR museum of PA now that I only live like 30 minutes from it. They have a bunch more live steam, and acres of rolling stock.
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# ? Mar 8, 2011 13:58 |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffing_Billy_Railwayquote:The railway was originally one of five narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways opened around the beginning of the 20th century. It runs through the southern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges to Gembrook. Being close to the city of Melbourne and with a post-preservation history spanning over 50 years, the line is one of the most popular steam heritage railways in the world,[1] and attracts tourists from all over Australia and overseas. They run a few engines and what is remarkable about the line, you are allowed to sit out the window, you see kids with their legs hanging out as it goes by which is really cool (or open air flatbed like cars with fences aorund the side) Here is a typical video, you can find them all over youtube they are pretty similar, this one is quite sharp though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAHETqdnRhY (Not my photos) It's a narro guage railway
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# ? Mar 8, 2011 14:57 |
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bytebark posted:I'm a regular volunteer at IRM (the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest museum of its kind in the Americas) and I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about. Was he big into diesels? Was? IS. He ends up doing a lot of the hardware scouting missions. And he runs the IRM website.
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# ? Mar 8, 2011 15:34 |
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Requesting more GG1 Pics please. I love those big bastards.
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# ? Mar 8, 2011 16:41 |
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Godholio posted:How would you even get it there? But no, you wouldn't want to take a highrail on train co owned track. It would be as fun as hell but the train cops would probably not be terribly understanding. Dad has a hoghead on Canadian National for about 35 years, just retired a couple years back. I've been on my share of freight trains and it's a lot of fun, but god drat it can be boring on bad track with a speed limit of 10-15MPH for 20 miles or so. The alerter also drove me bonkers, but I guess that's the idea though. To contribute:
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# ? Mar 8, 2011 17:06 |
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neckbeard posted:Legally? Nope. Would be trespassing against whichever company owns the tracks. My dad worked for Canadian Pacific for 30 years, he had a mid-90s Ford F-350 Crew Cab high-railer, and when you're 10 years old it's the coolest drat company truck besides a fire truck. Rabid Anti-Dentite! posted:It would be almost impossible to do that without working for the railroad. The amount of people he had to call and get the track shut down was incredible. They had to cut out a section and replace it with new rail due to shrinkage. Pretty cool to watch. That was an F250 that was only a few years old with other 150,000 miles on it. When that train passed, we had to stop or risk being blown off the track. Other than that, you lock the steering wheel and set the cruise at 45 and sit back and relax. Pretty cool feeling, like Marty in back to the future haha. I looked around and found these guys, a club of owners of old track maintenance vehicles which organizes legitimate group runs. Looks like they usually get access to track that's been abandoned, but they also list a few events which look like they're running ahead of an actual maintenance crew on a normally active line that would be closed at the time anyways. Seems to be the way to do it. I used to have a place I liked to ride my quad which was most easily accessible by riding about a mile down the side of the rails that ran behind my parents' place, so I'm quite familiar with the rail cops and certainly would not want to get on their bad side. For anyone who doesn't know, in most US states the rail cops are considered equal to the state police and have some interstate jurisdiction. wolrah fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Mar 8, 2011 |
# ? Mar 8, 2011 17:15 |
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Shays Locomotives are AWESOME! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbsbcZKCWDY They are geared down to hell and back, but can haul heavy loads up fairly steep grades
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# ? Mar 8, 2011 22:44 |
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Being from Doncaster originally, there's only one thing I can post in this thread.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 00:14 |
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This is a Union Pacific GTEL: a gas turbine-electric locomotive. Most of them burned gas. This one was an experimental design. The thing in the back is a converted steam locomotive coal tender; it's a coal crusher. This thing ran off coal dust.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 00:23 |
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atomicthumbs posted:The thing in the back is a converted steam locomotive coal tender; it's a coal crusher. This thing ran off coal dust.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 00:30 |
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Requesting more GG1 Pics please. I love those big bastards. I'll try and remember my DSLR this Saturday when I go out to the museum and get some more photos of ours (#4927), inside and out.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 02:24 |
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bytebark posted:I'll try and remember my DSLR this Saturday when I go out to the museum and get some more photos of ours (#4927), inside and out.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 06:06 |
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Here's what's usually pushing or pulling the train I take to work: An EMD F40PH This boxy engine was produced from 1976 and 1992, and was at that time the standard passenger locomotive throughout North America. Although Amtrak has since retired its fleet, VIA Rail Canada still has theirs, and Chicago's Metra (commuter railroad) still rosters 116 of them, the largest fleet of this loco type to be found anywhere. This locomotive's bulletproof reliability is sometimes credited as a factor in keeping Amtrak alive in the late 1970s and 80s, when it seemingly had nothing else going for it. But what's really unique about this locomotive? Watch this video clip, or more accurately, listen to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yz3vEvW3sk&feature=fvsr The accelerating locomotive doesn't rev up when getting up to speed. This is because the prime mover is already running at full blast - 900 RPMs. It does this to keep the main generator spinning at all times, which is not only what powers the traction motors, but also where the train's lights and HVAC get their juice - so it can't stop moving. During a given rush "hour," said locomotives will be running at 900 RPMs for maybe 3 hours straight. And back when Amtrak still hauled long distance trains across the US using F40s, their prime movers could have been running at full blast for 2-3 days nonstop. That's loving solid engineering.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 06:52 |
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Now, I understand the Gas turbine locomotives were actually quite fuel economic. As long as they were used at, or near full load. That's the curse of gas turbines. At high power settings they have great economy, their compression ratio goes through the roof, and they run stupid lean. At low power settings, they can have compression ratios as low as 4-5:1, and that leads to very poor fuel economy. Basically they only could be used hauling freight up mountains with any sort of economy. That's the problem with gas turbines in general. They also had some funny quirks with their generator. I recall they could make large pieces of metal jump when they switched modes. I'll need to ask around about that though. bytebark posted:Here's what's usually pushing or pulling the train I take to work: An EMD F40PH Me too Metra buddy. (I'm usually on the MD-N) Gotta love the screamers. Their engines are "derated" for the 500kw they provide for house power. Of course, RPM and load aren't directly related. While they may be doing 900rpm, they're doing so at very low load. That said, those suckers are hauling 6-10 car trains from 0-60-0 all day long. And on some of lines as much as 70mph. (I've seen 73mph on my gps... But I won't tattle on the engineer.) The locomotives were also sold as a freight version. If anyone is wondering, the way they control the acceleration of the train, is that they change the strength of the field coils on the traction motor. That allows them to vary torque without changing the output voltage from the generator. As I understand it, that is also done on "normal" locomotives also vary field coil strength, but in concert with the prime mover speed. I have a great shot or two of the underground of union. I'll get that posted in a little bit. Diesel fog and all. Speaking of the dark.. Because there isn't a separate house power generator on the F40PH when the engine dies, the whole train goes dark. And you lose heat. ... Not pleasant when there's 40mph winds and it's -4. That was a cold ride into the city. Other passenger rail service locomotives have a completely separate generation plant for house power. So it's possible to have the locomotive fail, and still maintain lights, heat and AC. Or, having a very dark ride but still get where you're going. I promised a picture: Nerobro fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Mar 9, 2011 |
# ? Mar 9, 2011 07:39 |
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T1g4h posted:My apartment is actually right across the road from a set of train tracks and there are constantly freight consists rolling through all hours of the day and night and it makes for oddly soothing background noise when they go rumbling by When I first moved out years ago I remember dreading the train tracks right across from my cheap rental. I was so wrong. The sleeps I had listening to trains there were fantastic. I got so used to the 12:45am at night that I would pretty much pass out on the spot when it showed up. Only since I've recently moved to a small rail heavy town (3 tracks) have I been able to enjoy that sound again. I'm listening to a CN train on its way to Windsor right now.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 08:56 |
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http://alliancemotorsport.org/gallery/v/Marcus/Personal/PuffingBilly/ Bunch of photos from Puffing Billy that are mine
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 11:31 |
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Rio Tinto and BHP are two of the worlds richest companies that help haul millions of tonnes of ore out from the mines to the ports in western australia. They both have very, very long trains. Video of a train going over the bridge while another train below it waits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFHAQNepGHU Train from a mountain-top snaking through the country: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CbVVDYTHFg Neverending train: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP4-iFIafUo BHP even has a record for the worlds longest cargo train quote:BHP Run on 21 June 2001, comprising 682 wagons and hauled by eight 6000 hp General Electric AC6000CW diesel-electric locomotives controlled by a single driver with a total length of 7.353 km on the 275 km iron ore railway to Port Hedland in Western Australia – total weight 99,734 tons drunkill fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Mar 13, 2011 |
# ? Mar 9, 2011 15:46 |
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Trains are pretty drat awesome. Although I do remember seeing somewhere that if you become a conductor or engineer you're basically guaranteed to "experience" ~2-3 suicide by trains while behind the controls during a career. (No idea if it's true).
jagdtiger00 fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Mar 9, 2011 |
# ? Mar 9, 2011 16:49 |
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Probably not if you're driving those ore trains through the Great Australian Bugger-All, though. Cool pics.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 17:08 |
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I just ride as a passenger. I'm yet to be on a train that has hit someone. But I've had my day ruined no less than eight times by people being stupid. ... Honestly, if you're going to commit suicide by train, I think your remaining family members should be killed too. Your singular actions send at least one person into psychiatric treatment (engineers on the BNSF get something like a mandatory week off after that..) and you screw with 10-15,000 peoples commutes. You suck, you're already dead. Your family deserves to pay. I feel better now. (Not that the family really deserves to pay, but i'm at a loss for who to punish when the offender is dead)
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 17:13 |
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Nerobro posted:i'm at a loss for who to punish when the offender is dead) Society.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 17:25 |
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Nerobro posted:I just ride as a passenger. I'm yet to be on a train that has hit someone. But I've had my day ruined no less than eight times by people being stupid. Dad had guy trying to beat the train at a level crossing years ago. The guy lost the race and paid the ultimate price. He still has nightmares about it every now and then.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 17:59 |
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How about that British train from that episode of Top Gear. That is what really made me stop and think drat, steam engine trains are really badass.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 18:18 |
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Nerobro posted:I just ride as a passenger. I'm yet to be on a train that has hit someone. But I've had my day ruined no less than eight times by people being stupid. I believe that's actually how it's done in Japan, on their high-speed lines. If you decide to off yourself by jumping in front of a bullet train (which typically run on-time, to the second), your family has to pick up the tab on the cost of delays incurred by your suicide. The various lines on the Japanese high-speed system have different fines for delays though, so all this means is that the suicides mostly occur on the line with the lowest fine. Also, I was on a train that hit a vehicle once. It was on Amtrak's Empire Builder about a year and a half ago, moving westbound through the great plains in eastern Montana. I'm sitting in the dining car, eating steak with a couple other rail-enthusiast buddies, and all of a sudden the train's emergency brakes go on.* As the train slows to a halt, we pass a set of headlights (this was night) which are precariously close to the tracks. So at that point we knew we hit a car. Coincidentally we were just about finished with dinner, and after getting back to our seats in the coach one car back from the diner, realized that the offending vehicle was right outside our car and easily in view. The train had rear-ended a Dustbuster-shaped van at something in the neighborhood of 60 mph. I say rear ended because this particular van was being driven by an intoxicated individual who took it upon himself to drive on the track itself, in the same direction the train was moving. The engineer probably saw the tail lights a half mile away (this happened on a very broad curve) with no trees or other obstructions along the right-of-way and put the train into emergency well before the collision actually happened. To the van's credit, the headlights remained on even after the collision occurred. Immediately after the collision, the conductor put an announcement over the PA, asking for anyone on-board with medical training to please come to the lower level of the car next to the wreck (the car with our seats). Soon after, all sorts of EMS vehicles started pulling up, in the end probably totalling around 40. Guess people getting hit by trains doesn't happen around there very much. The guy in the car survived, with injuries not life threatening. Our train got moving again after about an hour and a half (unfortunately, it had been on-time before it hit the car), with a fresh engineer brought in. We figured out that the driver was drunk and driving on the tracks because one of the guys in our group works for Amtrak, and was able to pull up a preliminary accident report when we got to our destination. * You can tell the emergency brake has been activated on a train with Westinghouse air brakes if you hear a sudden "pssssssshhhhhhhhhh" of air, followed by a fairly quick deceleration. Last fall, the train home from work was always going into emergency pulling into my stop, because there were wet leaves all over the rails. The engineer would have to "dump the air" while pulling in if the wheels started losing traction (in order to not overshoot the platform). bytebark fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Mar 9, 2011 |
# ? Mar 9, 2011 18:22 |
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I think the euphemism is "big holing it." And, as I recall, if you go into emergency it's automatically reported back to dispatch. There's all kinds of paperwork involved with an incident like that. Even if you don't actually hit anything.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 19:32 |
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jagdtiger00 posted:Trains are pretty drat awesome. Although I do remember seeing somewhere that if you become a conductor or engineer you're basically guaranteed to "experience" ~2-3 suicide by trains while behind the controls during a career. (No idea if it's true). My dad has been an engineer for Amtrak for about 10 years and before that he was a conductor for the Bay Area commutes known as CalTrain for about 5 years. In that span of time he has experienced more than 15 suicides, probably 7 of which he was the actual engineer for. At the same time, not all of the people that he's killed have been suicides. I think the one that disturbed him the most was when he hit and killed an elderly couple that was trying to cross the tracks. Both individuals were in their mid 70's and the old lady tried to cross first but ended up slipping on the rail. She went down in the middle of the tracks and the old man tried to carry her out of the way of the train but was too slow. My dad said that right as he was about to run them over the old guy looked right up and right in to his eyes. Sad poo poo right there. But on to fun times! After my parents got divorced my dad moved out to the Niles Canyon Railway and I basically spent my entire childhood growing up here. Talk about bad rear end. I basically got to climb around old, rusty rail equipment the whole weekend and sometimes drive them to boot! When I was there they only had two steam engines working but I had a hand in helping restore this one. Guess who's 10 year-old rear end was the only one small enough to climb under the on-board water storage tank to bold that sucker in. THIS GUY. They also had an equipment repository out in Oakland where they had a ton of old equipment. Basically, my childhood kicked all kinds of rear end.
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# ? Mar 9, 2011 20:40 |
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How about a "open source" steam locomotive? The Tornado is a newly designed and built steam engine, which was finished in 2008. The engine was designed and built as an volunteer effort. It is an improved model of the last steam locomotive the British built, back in 1948. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Peppercorn_Class_A1_60163_Tornado http://www.a1steam.com/
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# ? Mar 10, 2011 06:04 |
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How many loving times does that locomotive need to be brought up before you people read the loving thread? Yes, it's loving awesome. We get it. READ THE GODDAMN THREAD. IT'S ONLY TWO PAGES LONG. Okay, that's done. Anyone taking a cruise to Alaska needs to ride the White Pass. It's a rule. They have one of the only functioning steam rotary plows in the world (I believe the only other one is in Switzerland?), and they actually use it! Not only do they use it...wait for it...they push it with steam locomotives! http://www.wpyr.com/rotarysnowplow.html They run the rotary about every two years, and unfortunately I can't make this run. I will definitely be at the next run.
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# ? Mar 10, 2011 08:18 |
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Advent Horizon posted:How many loving times does that locomotive need to be brought up before you people read the loving thread? Yes, it's loving awesome. We get it. READ THE GODDAMN THREAD. IT'S ONLY TWO PAGES LONG. Yeah, other RRs use rotaries, but they've been converted to diesel and hydraulic, not steam. Although I think there's a few left that have a steam generator onboard salvaged from the early days of diesel electric prime movers hooked up to old style passenger consists, where it needed steam to run the stuff back there, so it was just a diesel burner with steam tubes in it...
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# ? Mar 10, 2011 08:52 |
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McDeth posted:
Holy poo poo your childhood would have been the best, I my 8 year old self would have wet himself to have even thought of ever being able to do that kinda fun stuff!
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# ? Mar 10, 2011 12:03 |
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Here's a neat vid of the soon-to-be-released 2011 Ford Ranger pulling an R-class locomotive out of its shed in Victoria: http://www.youtube.com/user/FordAPA#p/u/10/OPMgfdKCeZA
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# ? Mar 10, 2011 13:39 |
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Road_Warrior posted:Here's a neat vid of the soon-to-be-released 2011 Ford Ranger pulling an R-class locomotive out of its shed in Victoria: gently caress you ford. I don't Also, they probably would have had an easier time towing that poo poo in reverse. Not that it looked that hard....
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# ? Mar 11, 2011 03:12 |
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Road_Warrior posted:Here's a neat vid of the soon-to-be-released 2011 Ford Ranger pulling an R-class locomotive out of its shed in Victoria: Ahhh, what have they done to ya Ranger? What have they done? That being said, have another Shay. These things always look so cool. And the fact they they're supposed to be navigating hastily built narrow gauge railways through mountains and other rough terrain. And while we're talking about Trains, can we talk about awesome rail lines? I love the way some of these look. Like Horseshoe Curve. One of the busiest rail areas in the country, and just looks pretty amazing. This was so important that they Nazis actually had plans to destroy it during the War. And then there's Tegachapi Loop. Something that I never knew existed outside of model rail roads. They track loops over itself. Leading to trains crossing over themselves. Wierd
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# ? Mar 11, 2011 21:05 |
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They had geared locomotives like that that had half circle wheels on them. Designed to run on logs laid as rails for logging. I'd imagine they spent half their time derailed, and couldn't care less about it.
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# ? Mar 11, 2011 21:11 |
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ExplodingSims posted:And then there's Tegachapi Loop. Something that I never knew existed outside of model rail roads. They track loops over itself. Leading to trains crossing over themselves. Wierd We have something like this in Canada. Except we do it in a mountain, twice. Here's good explanation of them. http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/yoho/natcul/natcul12.aspx Skip to about a minute in if you want to see the action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEe9d69NpyM
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# ? Mar 11, 2011 21:21 |
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ExplodingSims posted:
Interestingly, the Tegachapi Loop also exists inside model railroads. The San Diego Model Railroad Museum has a display with a lot of the SoCal Union Pacific line including that loop.
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# ? Mar 11, 2011 22:13 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:38 |
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There's a great museum in Green Bay that has tons of trains of all styles, including the Big Boy and the Aerotrain shown earlier, as well as one of those curvy ones from England named after Dwight D. Eisenhower. Pictures can't do them justice, they're crazy huge and really impressive in person. And here's to all you Europeans with your real high speed Pendolino trains that actually go high speeds and are comfortable, affordable and on time. To those of you that haven't had the pleasure, it's as smooth as flying, but with more leg room and less security.
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# ? Mar 13, 2011 00:29 |